He's hopelessly in love with me

My boy Cruz. 

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Working from home. With cats.

Working from home has been something to get used to, since the pandemic began. Now it looks like many of us will continue working from home once it ends. There are pros and cons but my cats would tell you it's great! 

I have 4 cats, my self-imposed limit. That's not to say that if I had the resources I might have a bigger house and another cat or 2. But there would be a lot of conditions. 4 is a good number for me now, although I should probably only have 2. If I had a house with a catio, or someone to come vacuum for me everyday, maybe I would be better at justifying 4. However, I met a guy once who had 16 so I don't consider myself over the top.

There are usually 2 or 3 cats in my office at any given moment during the day, the only time there are 4 is if Emmett comes in at 5:01pm (now that's he's gotten used to the time change) to meow at me for dinner.

Cruz is my frequent flier and biggest nuisance er .. velcro cat. He has to be on my desk between me and my keyboard, or between my keyboard and monitors, or wherever he can cause the most amount of disruption, in general. He wants me to pay more attention to him than is practical while typing.

Louise likes to come in and meow plaintively at me because in the morning there are reflections dancing on the walls that remind her of the red dot. The red dot is her psychosis inducing nemesis. Eventually she climbs onto the cat tree and goes to sleep.

Abby will murder me in my sleep one day, I'm convinced. But being home and having access to me almost 24/7 seems to have mellowed her a bit. Now she only plans to murder me when I'm touching her. She has a place of honor on my desk, she lays in front of the window on some cat blankets and basks in the sun in the morning. In the afternoon she switches to an enclosed bed under my desk.

Emmett, well, Emmett. He is my scaredy-cat who hides under or on my bed during the day. He doesn't hang with us in the office and only emerges when his stomach (which is VERY reliable) tells him it is time to eat. 

It's possible that working from home without my cats would be harder. They bring some comfort during the day, humor, and loads of cat hair. But it's also fair to say that working at home with my cats, isn't any easier either! 

 Cruz                                  Louise                                 Abby                             Emmett

My castle

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It's a split level with 3 bedrooms up and 1 down. (yes, stairs!!)  Original wood floors upstairs and new carpet down. New cabinets and paint and even the bushes in front of the house have the tags on them. There is a full fenced yard for my grandpuppy and the house backs up to a park. Tee hee!!  Yes, I want to add shutters, I need to hang window treatments in every. single. room. The bathroom needs a fan.  In time, it will all happen. But it's mine. All of it.


It's a flip done by a rehabbing company that bought the house, gutted it and gave me an almost new house that was built in 1966. Exciting?  Yes, very!


Are we moved in?  Well.. there are 2 boxes packed, I've gone through my closet and have 3 bags for Goodwill or for someone who will come pick them up. I bought new litter boxes and brought them over to the new house today but beyond that .. no.


My son has never been good with change, and as I have mentioned to several people apparently he thinks the back of this house is the womb. He was slow to come out of there too! He hasn't even seen the new house and seems to have no interest.  BUZZ KILL!


My rent for February is paid, I don't have to make a mortgage payment until March, I'm going to take my time and try not to take anything with me I'm going to want to get rid of anyway.  And frankly, I was unwilling to pack a thing until I knew it was really true.

It will be a process.


WOO FREAKING HOO!!!


And one of the best parts?  More room, nicer place, and my mortgage payments (including taxes and insurance) will be about $350.00 less a month than my rent has been for the last 7 years and my interest rate is fabulous.  Hard to beat that!  


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It is mine.

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Amazing days ..

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It's been over 15 years since my divorce was final.  It's been just about 15 years since I had to sell my house so I would not lose it, and embarked on an adulthood of continuous renting.  There have been many days when I thought I would never be able to ever own my own home again.  

Tonight I went and looked at 2 townhouses. The first one was all redone - new floors, new paint, new kitchen, new appliances, upstairs, downstairs, full basement, 2 and a half baths .. 


Is it wrong that I may put an offer on the very 1st one I looked at?  It's beautiful!


But oh my - scary!

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Cats live a slavish existence, don't they?

Today I worked from home. For the very first time. I don’t know what I was expecting but I was pleasantly surprised to see that I did not get distracted by the TV or by my home computer. I discovered that work is work and when I am doing it, I am focused.

I did realize at some point that I was sitting on the couch with my laptop on my (where else?) lap, there was a coolish breeze blowing in the windows, and it was relatively quiet. There was no one near me on a conference call with their phone on speaker and no one close by who needs to speak loudly because of the headset they have. There were no people calling out to each other from across the room or laughing and making noise while I am on the phone with a client.

And I didn’t miss it.

But I would.

As loud as it gets sometimes, I really like the people I work with and I would not like to work from home every day. I like going to a place that is designated for work, where all my work ‘stuff’ is, and where I have a history with people.

But for today – this was my scenery.

Total relaxation..

...this..

and this ..

....this..

yes, and this ..

there's always a box somewhere ...

..friendship..

..and given the opportunity, this would be MY nap. Doesn't she look completely content?

Rainbows, moonbeams, and butterflies.

Well she’s ba-a-a-c-k….! With all her stuff. Dani had a single room at college this year which means it was more like an apartment judging by the amount of stuff she accumulated. There are bags and boxes of God knows what in the living room, the garage, and I hope she has at least some of it in her bedroom.

She brought back all kinds of stuff, even the new boy. Looking for a picture of him? Well, we killed him. He is stashed under a couple of those black garbage bags with his face pressed into the cat hair covered carpet.

Except – she’s smiling while she is posing in the midst of her college possessions so I’m guessing you know I’m fooling. No, the new boy has gone back to where he lives, safe and sound and without any eye swelling that I saw and only a few sneezes. Hallelujah. We DIDN’T kill him.

I’m not going to do a whole critique here, how rude would that be? He seems like a very nice guy, honest, very forthright and intelligent. He’s got a good sense of humor, a bit on the odd side, so he fits right in. The only strike he has against him is that he is dating my daughter and I don’t know him. I would say that’s a natural strike any guy will start out with until he’s been around for a while so I’m not picking on him. Oh by the way – his name is Dan.

We’re a little Dan heavy around here. My son hangs out with a guy named Dan, and sometimes this other guy named Dan. My brother’s name is Dan, my daughter is Dani and her new boy is Dan. STOP THE MADNESS!!! Oh sorry. Just a little Dan crazy for a second there.

My daughter is home, and so happy with this new boy I’m tempted to lift up her skirt to verify that rainbows and moonbeams really are shooting out of her butt. With butterflies. And possibly kittens.

Um, but I won’t. Have to draw the line somewhere.

It's finally here!!!

Since I moved into this new position at work I have been waiting for the opportunity to switch from a PC to a laptop. That way I can take it home and I can continue to learn new things and figure out processes I may be having trouble with ....



Yeah, so the new laptop is here and now I can work at the office and I can work at home and ... wait ... I've been WAITING for this????? *scratches head*

Maybe I'm not as bright as I thought I was. Sigh-h-h.

Top 10 ways to tell my daughter is home from school..

10) There is a winter coat lying on the kitchen table.

9) There is an America’s Next Top Model marathon on the TV.

8) We have already run out of hot water once today.

7) There is folded laundry all over the living room, wet sweaters drying on chairs and bras hung in various places in the utility room.

6) I have been talked into giving an impromptu haircut in the kitchen.

5) There are books lying around that I would never, ever read.

4) There are wet clothes in the washer and dry ones in the dryer – and neither machine is running.

3) Somebody let a Furby out.

2) Someone has been sitting at my makeup mirror and using my makeup! (Goldilocks, perhaps?)

And the number one way to tell my daughter is home from school;

1) Every. Single. Light. is on in the house!!!!

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More snow

The snow we were supposed to get last night, is coming down now. I could probably get to work, but coming home would be as long as my work day I think. I've been looking for more pictures of that 1967 snowstorm and they are surprisingly hard to find! But I did find this. It would be nice if it had some sound with it, but really - the pictures tell the story. 1967, some super 8 home movies. The cars were pretty cool back then, what you can see anyway! I tried to embed that video but could not do it to save my life. Still, take a peek!

Here are a few more pics I was able to find.

The snow drifts were huge

A little blurry but you know these kids were having fun!

I love the walk to the house, the snow is piled as high as the kids!

Hopefully I can get some pictures of our current snowfall, sometime during the day.